Jorge Lorenzo turned his first laps on a Yamaha MotoGP bike since 2016 on Tuesday as the three-day shakedown session at Sepang came to an end.
The three-time MotoGP champion, who was announced as a Yamaha tester last week, recorded 46 laps aboard the 2020-spec M1 bike, setting a best time of 2m05.506s.
That left him eighth overall on the third and final day of the test, 1.062 seconds away from the fastest time of the day, set by KTM rider Pol Espargaro.
Lorenzo did not take part in the opening two days of the test, both of which were topped by KTM’s test rider Dani Pedrosa.
Espargaro’s fastest lap on Tuesday therefore gave the Austrian brand a clean sweep of fastest times for the test, which was also open to race riders from non-concession teams and rookies, as well as test riders from all manufacturers.
Aleix Espargaro was second fastest on his first day on the radically revised 2020 Aprilia RS-GP, having sat out the first two days of testing, 0.178s down on his brother.
Tech3’s Miguel Oliveira made it two KTM representatives in the top three, another tenth back, followed by Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and another KTM rider, Brad Binder.
Pedrosa sat out Tuesday’s running, but his best time on Monday was enough to leave him fourth overall, just behind Oliveira.
Likewise not in action was new factory Honda recruit Alex Marquez, whose time on Monday left him seventh overall, ahead of HRC test rider Stefan Bradl, while Bradley Smith also did not take part in Tuesday’s session for Aprilia.
Lorenzo Savadori, drafted in by Aprilia for the absent Aprilia Iannone as the Italian faces an FIM appeal regarding his doping offences, concluded the test 16th overall.
The opening pre-season test proper at Sepang starts on Friday.